Be brave and act; even if you fail

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 

Winston S. Churchill

In the past, you certainly have been in the position of wanting to do something but being too afraid to confront it. We probably all have been in the same position. What goes through your mind in that specific moment? Probably every possible result and its consequences. Fear and doubt then start to enter our thoughts, even though we have not even come close to acting out our plan. What next? Fear and doubt become stronger and find a way to infiltrate every thought. Finally, exaggerated scenarios lead us to mental paralysis. We decide not to take on the endeavour. We decide not to be brave.

Root of fear and doubt

Have you ever thought about where the fear of failure and the doubt of success come from? If you were alone on this planet and you would have to finish a task to achieve a goal, wouldn’t that be easy? If you achieve it, perfect; if you do not achieve it, good… you will try again later. You will try as many times as it takes until you finish the task.

Now imagine you are not alone on this planet. Another person is right beside you in this small community of two people. Like in the first scenario, you would have to finish a task to achieve a goal. You achieved it? Perfect. You did not achieve it? Good… you will try again later. The other person comforts you with nice phrases like, “It was a good first try. You will do it next time.” You are brave enough to try it one more time and fail again. Now the other person might still be supportive but if you try it many times and you keep on failing the support fill slowly vanish. Support will turn into shame and you will think twice before attempting to be brave again in the future.

the fear of other people’s opinions

The fear of other peoples opinions is a strong driving force in your decision to be brave or not. You certainly would try to accomplish many more things if it wasn’t for the fear of others seeing your potential failure. Changing your mindset is crucial. Even though we celebrate famous successful people who kept trying and eventually succeeded, we tend to criticise “normal” people who have the same zeal. Why is that?

It is because of envy. We envy people in our close environment who try to succeed and are brave enough to attempt something that we are too afraid of attempting. Additionally, envy can be closer than we think. Our best friends, our brothers, our sisters.

fear of showing our insecurities

When you arrive at a point in your live when the circumstances demand from you to be brave, you find yourself in a vulnerable position. It feels like standing naked in front of an audience. Your shortcomings will be visible and that scares you. Everybody will see what you can and cannot do. Therefore, you concentrate less on showing the world what you can do than hiding what you cannot do. Why aren’t you concentrating more on showing the world your skills? You should be more enthusiastic of showing your strengths than be afraid of showing your weaknesses and insecurities. Fear of appearing weak or inadequate is an insecurity in itself.

One personal story: I was afraid of showing my insecurities in a relationship. For that reason I ended the relationship when it started getting serious out of fear. I created excused to terminate the relationship and most of those excuses did not include my insecurities. Maybe I was not aware of them at that time. When life gave me the opportunity to be brave I chose to be a coward. Instead of being enthusiastic of showing my qualities as a romantic partner, I was afraid of showing my weaknesses and insecurities. I hope I learned and I am not going to repeat the same mistake in the future.

being brave creates opportunities

Oftentimes, when an opportunity arises, you focus on your inadequacies, your shortcomings. Instead of seeing your shortcomings as liabilities, you should perceive them as opportunities of improvement. What you currently cannot do, you can learn in the future. In every new environment there is something that you can learn, something that will enhance your knowledge and expertise. You will not grow as a person if you are not brave enough to grow. You cannot learn how to hunt a lion if you are not brave enough to go to the jungle and try to hunt your first lion. I am not telling you to go hunt a lion, that would probably end deadly; I am telling you to go hunt opportunities, hunt new experiences, hunt the unknown and hunt whatever frightens you.

conclusion? be brave

There is only one conclusion: to be brave. Therefore, write down what you are most afraid of. Whatever terrifies you in your everyday life. Something that you want to do but think that you probably do not have the necessary tools to accomplish. Afterwards, do exactly what you have written down. Create a plan, think about your approach and be brave. The process of attempting, itself, will improve your skills and expertise.

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